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Europe's ElectroGraph project is devoted to developing advanced power sources for hybrid electric vehicles. Its researchers are investigating the combination of graphene and graphene-based materials as electrode materials and room-temperature ionic liquids as electrolytes to create supercapacitors.

University of California at Los Angeles researchers report they have developed electrochemical supercapacitors with the graphene material. "Our study demonstrates that our new graphene-based supercapacitors store as much charge as conventional batteries, but can be charged and discharged a hundred to a thousand times faster," UCLA professor Richard Kaner said.

Graphene-based ICs will account for worldwide revenue of $100 million by 2018, according to IDTechEx. The carbon material will go into logic and memory devices, radio-frequency identification chips, sensors and supercapacitors, the market research firm predicts.

In papers presented Monday at the International Electron Devices Meeting, IBM revealed several advances in nanotechnology and semiconductor technology. The company said it successfully fabricated a carbon nanotube transistor with linewidths of less than 10 nanometers. IBM also reported it was able to make graphene transistors on a regular 200-millimeter wafer fab line and it is moving along the development of "racetrack memory" devices, which could someday replace NAND flash memory.